DHL Supply Chain, Locus Robotics to deploy autonomous mobile robots to new locations

March 12, 2020

Through the expansion of their partnership, supply chain management and third-party logistics company DHL Supply Chain and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) developer Locus Robotics will launch 10 new, nationwide deployments of the Locus AMR platform this year.
“The agreement with Locus Robotics further enables us to bring productivity-enhancing technology to our customers quickly, so they are well-positioned to capitalize on new and emerging opportunities,” says Jim Gehr, president, Retail at DHL Supply Chain North America.
“DHL Supply Chain’s initial implementation of the Locus solution within the life sciences and retail sectors was a tremendous success; we saw increases in fulfillment productivity of up to 80% in selected customer operations. We now see an opportunity to extend the benefits of utilizing their highly flexible AMR solution at scale for customers across multiple sectors.”
In 2017, DHL Supply Chain North America and Locus Robotics partnered to pilot a collaborative, autonomous robotics platform called LocusBots to support associates in piece picking order fulfilment in warehouses. Capable of navigating autonomously within warehouses to quickly locate and transport pick items to associates, the LocusBots can be flexibly deployed to support a variety of picking strategies, which greatly reduces time spent on routine or physically demanding tasks, as well as manual errors, and increases productivity.
In 2018, DHL Supply Chain announced a multi-year plan to invest $300 million in emerging technologies in its North American operations. The company has launched an accelerated digitalization program that has identified 14 target technologies that can be fast-tracked into customers’ operations. Seven of those target technologies involve collaborative robotics.
By working with emerging technology providers such as Locus Robotics, DHL says that it can “quickly bring proven, productivity-enhancing technology and data-driven insights” to the supply chains of customers.
“We are very excited to be growing our partnership with DHL Supply Chain,” says Rick Faulk, CEO, Locus Robotics.
“We’ve already identified the sites in question and expect deployment in 2020 to support volume for peak season. What is particularly gratifying about this expansion is that the DHL decision was based on observed successes in their early facilities. We continue to see customers expanding their relationships as they prove out our solution.”